


Cairfold High - Chaos Walking

by Will_I_Ever_Make_A_Sound



Category: Cairfold High, Original Work
Genre: Based off a pinterest prompt, Floop I don't know what this is, Rifing is a word I made up, i hope it doesn't mean anything else, supernatural Highschool? Ohhhh boy, you know as most things do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 17:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15778785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Will_I_Ever_Make_A_Sound/pseuds/Will_I_Ever_Make_A_Sound
Summary: "Cairfold High: On paper, the perfect school for supernatural teens. A diverse culture, specialized magic training, and extensive classes on anything under the sun (even above the sun. They were now offering Angelic Culture). Located in Cairfold, an ancient castle with magic in its very foundation, it's been repurposed from a historic location into a functioning boarding school.But what you see on paper usually isn't all there is."----The story of Lisel Bris





	Cairfold High - Chaos Walking

 

 

Cairfold High: On paper, the perfect school for supernatural teens. A diverse culture, specialized magic training, and extensive classes on anything under the sun (even above the sun. They were now offering Angelic Culture). Located in Cairfold, an ancient castle with magic in its very foundation, it's been repurposed from a historic location into a functioning boarding school.   
But what you see on paper usually isn't all there is.

Harpies smoke “Magix Missle” brand joints on the balconies. Security guards armed with pellet guns filled with salt corral the crowd surrounding a pair of fistfighting vampires. Lycan’s take the “my dog ate my homework” joke to a new level. So going from 9 peaceful years of self-education to, well, _that_ , was quite a leap.

If I'd had the choice, I'd have skipped a public education completely. After all, what more did I need to know than sea and storm, wind and flame?   
Trigonometry, apparently.

  
My first day was a sort of cliched disaster. Within five minutes of unpacking my bags in the dormitory (I was shelved in “Miscellaneous Gender”, much to my relief), an older student with a rats nest of red hair and eyes that glowed amber burst in.

“Alright, newbies!” He crowed loudly. His hands, which rested on the doorframe, were blackened and sizzling hot, flames licking eagerly between his fingers. As I looked up, I could see tendrils of smoke curling into the air.

I'd been having a conversation with Maev, a dark-skinned and golden eyed descendant of the Fae who had the bed next to mine. We'd been discussing the nature of magic and our personal theories on its origins. The other two kid in the dormitory — a wide eyed Selkie named Cody and a half-vampire half-siren named Rys — were near us, listening in to the conversation.   
  
“Pardon me?” I asked, a bit frigidly. I'd never been confronted with an arrogant teenage boy before (self-schooled, remember?) and I found out quickly that I didn't like them. His eyes narrowed, a spark of anger lighting in his amber irises.

“I didn't give you permission to speak, Underling,” he sneered. I assumed he was a fire elemental; from my textbooks, I'd heard that they were showy, hotheaded, and often ruined their clothes when their emotions got the better of them. All of those markers applied to the boy in front of me.

“My name is Liesel,” I said stiffly, ignoring Maev’s sharp intake of breath. “And this isn't your dorm.”   
He scoffed.

“I'm Duncan Sun,” he said, reveling in each syllable of the name. Cody visibly winced, wide brown eyes looking away. I stared at him blankly.

“Pardon?” I said. “Am I supposed to know you?”

Ah, note to past self: that was stupid.   
And that was the first time I'd been the victim of an attempted Rifing — the act of forcefully and often rudely revealing someone's magical heritage. Of course, the juniper berries he's tried to pelt me with hadn't worked, though they did give Maeve a nasty hive on their arm for a week.

Over the next few months, I learned that the term freshmen had a quite literal meaning. Cody was subject to more innuendos involving a selfie pelt than I could possibly imagine, Rys was called every slur under the sun, including the one's about the sun, and Maev had to have me swept up marsh marigolds someone left on their bed. It wasn't just my dorm either. Nearly every kid in my grade had been mocked, hurt, or threatened by one of the older, more powerful students. Most of them had been rifed.   
Except for me.

  
Other than the fact that I hadn't been rifed, I was the picture of an ordinary 14 year old at Fairfield. I didn't have wings, or pointy ears, or scales or a tail. There were two lumps on my head, but whether they were horns or swollen bruises from when I'd fallen out of the lightening blacked oak tree in my yard was debatable. My androgynous appearance and identity weren't that odd at a school full of the unusual (what being of magic has gender roles, anyways?), and the upperclassmen usually left me alone. In return, I restrained myself from doing anything too severe or obvious, and if bullies like Duncan Sun happened to misplace their textbooks, or wand, well, I always had a perfect excuse of why I didn't do it.  
It wasn't easy, maintaining the picture of pure, innocent normality. Superpowered and supernatural teens are just as bad as normal ones, except they have power they can abuse.   
People guessed at my heritage aimlessly for the first week. By the end of the month, they had a betting pool started. And as the first semester drew to a close, people were actively trying to provoke me into showing something that would reveal myself. Even Cody, Maeve and Rys were curious, though they weren't so rude as to press after they initially asked.   
But I'll tell you my secret. I wasn't a lamia, or a tiefling, or a were-anything. Nor was I some obscure half breed or a creature from Japanese mythology (I honestly still don't know where that option came from, though it got immensely popular, according to Rys. 23 bets on it). No, I was the one thing they didn't guess.  
A God.  
So whenever they tried to test some new theory, I just smiled at them, and if my eyes happened to flicker with a dark shadow?   
Well, that could be blamed on the faulty fluorescent lighting.

Winter break was as to be expected. I received my bone circlet, which was rather painful and inconvenient (ever tried writing something with a bracelet melded to your wrist? It sucks), but at least my parents were proud. My mom had bet five quid that I'd have it off by senior year; my dad thought otherwise. His Turning had taken twenty years, and he was of the conservative belief that the later you Turn, the more powerful and in control you are.  
I leaned towards my mothers beliefs. She was not as rawly strong as my father, but she had a subtle confidence that made me believe she only served him for her purpose, rather than his.  
It was nice, seeing my family. Being back at the house again. I had forgotten the way the air curled warmly around my ankles as a greeting, the smell of dust and expectancy in the air. The holly that hummed quietly from its places over mantles and doorways. The field of grass in the backyard, grey green and sweet, the clouds that whirled across the sky, the start of a thousand storms. Mostly I'd missed the oak tree, pale except for the black remains of branches. It had stories to tell by the time I came back to it, stories of a little girl who'd visit it when the skies cleared, and I felt a strange welling of sadness in my stomach. But I wasn't a child anymore, and so if the ground under my hands crept with frost as I cried, it was gone before anyone else saw it.   
By the time I returned from break, the signs of my aging was showing. I was at least three inches taller than I'd been before, and my dark curls now hung at the level of my chin. My eyes, usually a restless, shifting grey, had taken on a purplish hue, and at this point I was pretty sure the smooth ebony bumps on my head were not bruises.

  
The first week back in school was the hardest. The feeling of freedom, of trees slicked black and snow that sang as silent song as it feel to the ground, was slowly dissipating back into begrudging work and tired hatred. The world outside, only truly alive now that most of it was dead, was kept carefully away behind crystal windows.  
I stared idly out of said windows, peering into the swirling snowy expanse beyond. The voice of Professor Vinsburg lecturing about the art of apparition rolled over me like waves, and if I let my head slip into memories, I could almost hear the song of the deep ocean, a lulling hum. It was the song of my birth, my childhood, and it comforted me.  
Of course, I wasn't a fetus anymore. That was proven by the bone bracelet that clacked against the oak desk every time I moved.  
“Lisel?” Professor Vinsburg called out, and I snapped back to reality.   
The class turned to stare at me, and I straighten my back, heat rising to my cheeks.   
“If you'd care to demonstrate?” He said, gesturing me up to the front.   
I faltered, floundered. He knew as well as anyone that I hadn't done magic in any class since day one. Some people were now even considering that I was a normal human, posing as a supernatural to get a higher education.   
The very thought made me feel prickly, like harvest spiders were crawling up my throat, like vines were extending from my arms and snaking across the walls, squeezing in, in, _in_ , my eyes glowing and a grin across my face as I showed them what I could really do.   
Then the deep, reverberating toll of the school bell rang, and I snapped out of my fantasy as my classmates all began to stand up.   
My face flushed even more, and I quickly gathered my books, careful not to meet Professor Vinsburg’s face. As I shuffled out into the hall, the echo of the bell seemed to chase me. _Soon, soon, soon_ , it promised, ringing through the stone halls and vast courtyards.   
I tried to ignore it as I raced to Common.   
Commons — Otherwise known as Courtyard Commons or CC — had previously been the main courtyard of Castle Cairfold. It was our study hall, lunch hour, general goof-off time.   
Problem was, sometimes some upperclassmen wandered down.   
Which why I was displeased but not surprised when I raced in to find Duncan Sun leering unpleasantly close to Cody.   
“You know, I've never seen a Selkie who was a _boy_ before,” Duncan taunted. Cody winced, shrinking back against the wall. I could see Rys fluttering anxiously nearby, wringing his hands but unwilling to do anything. I was pretty sure the two had started dating somewhere along the line, though I couldn't recall if they're come right out and said it, or when it started. It was one of those strange, slow progressions from stranger to friend to lover.   
Duncan's hands pressed Cody forcefully against the wall. His discomfort and distress was plain to see, yet all anyone could do was watch. I could see Rys swelling up with rage, so close to snapping and unleashing his deadly song on the fire elemental.   
“You don't _deserve_ to attend Cairfold,” Duncan said. I could see my friends eyes welling up with tears, and at that moment, I used my thin white line of rage and twisted it to my will.   
Let's just say I snapped.   
Duncan was thrown against the wall with a fierce gust of wind. I stormed forward, eyes darkening and glowing from within, the stone flooring rattling beneath my feet as I called on the plants and earth beneath my feet. The sky darkened, and leaves began to swirl in a cyclone around me.   
“Duncan Sun,” I said, spitting out the name in disgust. I spoke with the storm, the sea, the earth; with all the anger of a righteous friend, all the venomous spite of a victim risen to power, all the furiousness of an animal.  
The courtyard was silent except for the wind that whipped around my feet.   
“You've asked me what I am. You've tried to force me to reveal myself. Well, here it is, the grand finale.” I gestured vaguely.   
“I'm a god. The god of chaos.”   
Then I threw Duncan into the wall with a sickening crack, and everything was quiet, except for the racing of my pulse.

The cracks in the Commons still remains there, despite the magic the teachers did. The rose bushes also suffered a beating. Duncan Sun was, very obviously, expelled, though I did get detention and some very strict warnings how how not to abuse my powers. I, of course, ignored them and pranked some mean upperclassmen as soon as I was allowed back in normal classes.   
Maeve went into philosophy and the arts. I hear they’re a drama teacher now, and that their recent production of A Midsummer Nights Dream was ‘really magical’. Little do they know.   
Rys and Cody ended up as a couple, with Rys planning to go into folklore investigation and Cody into business. And if someone thinks it's weak to be a boy selkie, well, if Cody doesn't dock them himself, Rys certainly will. I actually got an invite to their wedding not too long ago.

  
As for me?  
Well, I graduated Cairfold High with top marks, an amazing group of friends, a big reputation and a promise, a whisper, to the old school, to the memories and ghosts that lived there.

I'll be back.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to all the Pinterest folks who liked the initial idea (which was been much improved on, by the way, lol)   
> You got some questions? A couple of suggestions (on how to fight instead of fleeing west?) Kudos and comments exist for a a reason! Even if it's just something quick and simple! I love feedback!   
> Thanks for reading <3


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